When Dr. Avroy Fanaroff's son, Jonathan, was born, he was blue and had difficulty breathing. He was diagnosed with meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), and spent three extremely ill weeks in the NICU.

"He was treated with oxygen via a hood over his head and antibiotics," says Dr. Fanaroff, physician-in-chief at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. "He received IV feeding and had a catheter placed in his umbilical artery."

Now for the good news, and even better news: Although Jonathan turned blue with feeds for some time, he made a full recovery with no residual effects. Also, his experience with MAS occurred 39 years ago. Now "the survival and long-term outcome is excellent, and the frequency of MAS has been reduced significantly," Dr. Fanaroff says.

Even though there are fewer cases of MAS in 2008, it still occurs. The more you know about it, the more prepared you'll be.

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